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Curriculum Maps

Last Updated: Jul 14, 2015 03:00PM CDT

Curriculum maps are useful tools that allow teachers to see the "big picture" of their curriculum, instruction, and assessment process.

In Naiku, your state standards or learning targets serve as the foundation of the curriculum map. For each standard or learning target, you can attach assessments and learning resources. This allows you to see the big picture of the skills that will be taught, how they will be assessed, and what additional instructional resources will be provided to students.

To create a curriculum map, click on New Map and we'll guide you through the steps to create a curriculum map. Alternatively, you can search for and use a map that may have already been created by colleagues at your school.

Below is a sample curriculum map for Grade 8 Mathematics. This curriculum map is based on the Common Core Grade 8 Mathematics Standards.

Several key features of the Curriculum Map are described below.

Sharing Level
Like assessments in Naiku, when you create a curriculum map, you have the option to share it with other teachers. The four sharing levels are "Just Me", "School", "District", and "World". When you create your map and share it with colleagues, they can use your map with their classes. They won't be able to edit your map. They will be creating a copy of your map when they assign it to their classes.

Assign the Map to Class(es)
You can assign your curriculum map to one ore more classes. After assigning it to a class, you will see the list of assessments that have been assigned to the class. When you click on an assessment, you will see which standard(s) are covered in that assessment.

Add New Standards
You can start your curriculum map with the Common Core or State Standards as the foundation. Click on Add standard and navigate to the Common Core or State Standard of your choice. Click on the "+" sign to add the standards.

To add a new standard (i.e., your own learning target), click on any standard in your curriculum map. You will see the standard highlighted and you will have the option to add a new standard. All you need to enter is a short number of the standard and a short description. In the screenshot below, note that standards 8.G.B.7.1 and 8.G.B.7.2 are local learning targets that were added to the curriculum map.

Add Learning Resources
When you click on a standard, you can also add a learning resource to that standard. A learning resource can be something like an extra homework sheet for students, a webpage or video you want them to visit, or a web game you want them to play for intervention, practice, or enrichment.

When you add learning resources to a standard, students will receive the learning resource based on their performance on the standards on the test. You can configure the learning resource so that students will only see it if they need intervention (i.e., if they performed very poorly on the test), practice (i.e., if they performed about average on the test), or enrichment (i.e., if they performed really well on the test).

Assessments and Your Curriculum Map
As you create assessments with items that are aligned to standards in your curriculum map, and when you assign the assessments to your class, you will see the list of assessments in the right column. This lists gives you a big picture look of what assessments you have planned for the class and what standards they cover. When you click on the name of any assessment, the standards that are covered in that assessment will be highlighted.